Friday, January 17, 2014

Hill Cantons Bestiary: the Polevik

Polevik

No. Enc.: 1d8

Alignment: Lawful (Evil)

Movement: 120’ (60’)

Armor Class: 3

Hit Dice: 2

Attacks: 2 Sickles or Special (see
Below)

Damage: 1d6, 1d6

Save: E2

Morale: 8

XP: 50

In the corelands of Zem the grain field
is simply and drearily a place of endless toil, in the borderlands it
can also be a place of terror for the unwary. Old Pahr peasants
whisper tales of millenia ago when a mysterious devil called The Man
introduced the Poleviki, dread spirits of the field, into the world
as a gift to the lords of the land.

A Polevik, when not invisible (an
effect it can cast on itself twice a day, but always dissipates for a
turn after noon), appears on first glance to be a benevolent
dwarf-like spirit, pale-skinned and hairy with wheat-stalk hair and
beard. But behind the large-mouthed grin and mixed blue and green
eyes is pure malice.

Crouching patiently and malevolently
behind the sun-dappled rows a Polevik will sit for years until that
one fell moment when an exhausted field hand or drunk villager lays
their head down for a stolen nap. Often only a bloodied work blouse
remains behind as a sober reminder of vigilance. Once a decade or so
during high summer, when the field-demons fidget with boredom, they
will also lead a stray individual into the fields to their doom.

Beyond the short sharp shock of their
sickles, Poleviki are also known to attack by a disease-ridden touch
(hit at AC9). Without a successful save vs magic those such touched
will be afflicted with a virulent and dangerous yeast infection that
will spread without treatment over the whole body before killing in
2-7 weeks.

Some savants maintain that a Polevik
can be appeased by tossing a sack containing a rooster, a jug of
white gravy, a frog and a pork chop into a hole in the field, but old
wise women discount such newfangled theories of science.